Container Gardening
I am posting here to see is anyone has any hints for this new gardener. I am doing a container garden (on my balcony) and would love any and all hints regarding how to make it thrive. Any websites? Books? Thanks a bunch!
I am posting here to see is anyone has any hints for this new gardener. I am doing a container garden (on my balcony) and would love any and all hints regarding how to make it thrive. Any websites? Books?
Thanks a bunch!
We used to do a lot of rooftop container gardening before we moved to a garden apartment. One product we found extremely useful was these little gel crystals which absorbed water and gradually released it into the soil. The crystals are about the size of a grain of sea salt, maybe 1/16″ cube. You mix them in with the soil when planting. They made a huge difference for us. We had a full sun roof, and in august it got so hot up there that we had to water twice a day. These things worked so well we were actually able to go away for a weekend without asking our neighbors to water the garden.
I can’t remember the name, but here’s a link to a similar product: http://www.crystals.us/.
Don’t forget things that climb like morning glories and moon flowers. They’re easy to grow from seed, don’t require a huge planter, can be trained up and around the balcony railing or around, say, your dining space — and you can have blossoms all day/evening.
check out the gardenweb container forum. you’ll get a lot better advice: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/contain/
Thanks for all the input. I have a fairly small balcony but it gets full sun almost all day. So far I have started from seed: basil, chives, parsley, radishes, beets, marigolds, morning glory, and a few other things I cant remember at the moment. Most of the seeds are beginning to sprout up and I am dutifully thinning them. I guess my next question is how long does one wait to transplant? And how large do the containers need to be? For example, to plant my morning glory (they are already 3″ tall) should I put them directly into the pot they will be living in?
Also, can any one tell me how deep/large my planter for beets and radishes should be? I read somewhere that they need not be lat deep– as they are so tasty when small. Any knowledge on that?
Again, thanks for all the help!
I love nasturtiums, and they grow well from seed … the leaves are round and vivid yellow green and they cascade over the pot and railings nicely. Edible too. This year I even found a climbing variety at BBG I’m excited to try out.
First discovered them when I was housekeeper for a British couple who had them on their terrace. They seem to thrive as long as they get decent sun.
I would recommend using the Earthbox self watering container.
I used 4 last year and had an awesome vegetable garden.
This year I have 6 of them. Gonna set them up this weekend if it’s nice out.
Cherry tomatoes, baby greens and basil grow nicely in pots. I’ve also had good luck with hydrangea, tall French marigolds, morning glory, moonflower, boxwood, Sweet William, petunias, which blew in, and forsythia. Alot depends on the amount of sun you get, how much space you want to cede to plants and the mood you want to create.
BBG also has little booklets about container gardening that are quite helpful.
Depending on what you are planning to grow, and your exposure (sun, etc), you can invest in some plant light bulbs that can increase the variety of plants that you will be able to grow on your balcony.
I used to have a very shady balcony that got almost no sun when I lived in Midtown, and a few hours a day from a full spectrum bulb helped my tomatoes immensely. I have a soft spot for home grown tomatoes, or else I would have just grown more shade appropriate plants.